| Voiceless Velar Fricative |
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The voiceless velar fricative is a type of Consonant al sound used in some Spoken Language s. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is x. The sound is rare in, but not completely absent from, English . To give English speakers an example of the sound with which they might be familiar, consider the sound represented by "ch" in Scottish ''loch'' or Hebrew ''Chanukah''. FEATURES Features of the voiceless velar fricative:
VARIETIES OF IN ENGLISH Standard English does not have , except for a few loan words such as Scottish ''loch'' and Hebrew ''Chanukah'' . Where it occurs, it is usually represented by a "ch", but often in terms from more foreign languages shows up as "kh"; terms from a very few languages even use "x" for it. Many speakers, especially in the United States, do not (often cannot) make this sound, and are sometimes not even aware of its existence; these speakers replace it with in words such as "chutzpah" or "challah," or in words such as "loch" or "leprechaun." These alternative pronunciations are considered acceptable by most authorities. Some dialects in England, particularly London and Liverpool, may have where other dialects have , as in ''cat''. In London it is a younger, lower-class pronunciation. IN OTHER LANGUAGES The sound is a somewhat common sound cross-linguistically. Armenian In Armenian, is spelled Խ. Assamese In Assamese, is spelled শ, ষ or স. Breton C'h represents the sound in Breton, as in ''merc'hetaer''. Czech , Slovak In Czech (and also in Slovak), as in other Slavic languages using the Roman alphabet, "ch" is pronounced as voiceless velar fricative. Unlike in Polish, the sound of "ch" and the sound of regular "h" are still being clearly differentiated. In some words, the difference in the pronunciation of "ch" and "h" is even crucial for the identification of the word, e. g. in Czech ''hodit'' (to throw) and '''''ch'''odit'' (to walk). is also a voiceless realisation of "h" at the end of the word or next to a voiceless Consonant , e. g. in Czech ''vrch'' ((the) top) and ''vr'''h''''' ((a) throw), both words are pronounced [vr'''x''' , although and [ are not a real Voiceless - Voiced pair. Dutch Standard Dutch has no g-sound as in "garden". They use a voiceless velar fricative or a Voiced Velar Fricative instead. The word for "laugh" in both German and Dutch is "lachen", with ''ch'' to be pronounced as . Esperanto Esperanto has an , spelled ĥ. It is seldom used. Irish Irish Gaelic has the sound, although some dialects do not pronounce it or soften it, like in the case of ''oíche'' (night). Georgian Georgian has an , spelled ხ. German German has the voiceless velar fricative and it is spelled with "ch", as in ''ach'' (the interjection Oh!). The Germans call this sound ''ach-Laut''. This is the sound represented by "ch" when it follows "a", "o", "u", or the diphthong "au". The sound represented by "ch" following "e", "i", "ä", "ö", "ü", the diphthongs "eu" or "äu", or the consonants "l", "n" or "r" is a different consonant, the Voiceless Palatal Fricative . The sounds are Allophone s that are just starting to become separate phonemes, a rather interesting situation. See German Phonology . Indonesian The current Indonesian spelling (the Melindo system adopted in 1972) uses the English kh for the fricative; the older Dutch-based system (colonial) used the German-Dutch '''ch'''. Polish In Polish, as in other Slavic languages using the Roman alphabet, "ch" is pronounced as voiceless velar fricative, though in modern Polish the sound of "ch" blends with the sound of regular "h". Russian Russian uses the Cyrillic letter Kha (Х, х) for the voiceless velar fricative. Scottish Gaelic Scots Gaelic is notorious for its guttural ''ch'', noted in ''loch'' (lake), ''a-mach'' (out), and ''chì'' (will see). Spanish In the Spanish of Spain, the letter j is always pronounced as {Link without Title} , as well as the letter '''g''' when followed by an '''e''' or a '''i''', in words like '''general''' and '''mujer'''. The different spellings for the sound cause a common misspelling in Spanish, leading people to sometimes spell "general" as '''jeneral'''. Swahili Swahili uses kh for this guttural, although some speakers do have it substituted with plain '''h'''; kh appears in terms loaned from Arabic. Welsh Welsh represents the voiceless velar fricative with "ch". SEE ALSO |
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